DPH needs $3M for medical referral

With a month to go before the current fiscal year ends, the Department of Public Health will need additional $3 million to provide assistance to residents under its medical referral program.

DPH Sec. Joseph Kevin Villagomez attributed the shortfall to drastic 50 percent cut in the amount appropriated by the government in FY 1999 as well as to the costly medical expenses incurred by patients who have been referred to off-island hospitals.

“Actually we will be in a hole more but the Legislature gave me the flexibility to use some of those accounts,” he told reporters. “So it’s been good, but right now we just have a lot of very sick people and we can’t (help them) no matter what system you put in place.”

Villagomez, however, expressed relief over attempts by the Tenorio administration to seek other ways to fund the program, which were discussed during a Cabinet meeting yesterday.

In another effort to assist DPH, the Legislature last month passed a measure that grants powers to the secretary to reprogram unspent funds from two previous appropriations to the DPH so that the program could meet its financial needs.

“The current budget was cut by about 50 percent from original amount but medical expenses are still the same as last year or the previous years,” said Villagomez.

To answer charges by lawmakers of unfair treatment in carrying out medical referrals, key physicians from the Commonwealth Health Center will discuss with them the issue.

According to Villagomez, the Legislature needs to hear the side of the medical staff, not just complaints from patients. “Without becoming confrontational or defensive, the meeting is to address the health care needs of these people,” added the secretary.

He said they are trying to deal with increasing costs of the medical referral since the department does not expect to receive sufficient amount for FY 2000 to fund all the needs of the CNMI citizens.

“We can’t just send everybody off island… when we have already hired a lot of these physicians who are able to do the procedures here,” Villagomez explained. “We are not sending as much people off. But the people we do send are very sick and they require more intensive and expensive treatment.”

He added that “when they come up with questions why they are not referred, well I say that if the procedure can be done here and the medical care can be done by us, then we’ll take care of it here.”

From a high of over $8 million approved budget in FY 1998, the program’s budget under this year’s spending package was slashed to a mere $4.2 million due to the financial crisis plaguing the Northern Marianas.

For the next fiscal year, the administration has set aside $3.72 million.

The CNMI has three medical referral office — in Hawaii, Guam and Manila, Philippines. Of the three, Hawaii receives the most requests, assisting an average of some 50 patients a month.

The program is fully funded by the local government. Benefits include subsidy on transportation fare, subsistence and lodging expenses and a certain percentage of the medical cost incurred.